Bake 6 (Day 23): Chocolate Swiss Roll

Now, as we are all aware my last bake (and first swiss roll attempt) was not successful.

However, I took onboard what went wrong last time and applied it and I am pleased report this one was much more successful!!

As the last one was significantly overcooked I decided to have the oven at 180 degrees rather than 200 and still cook for the full 10 minutes (also didn’t open the oven half way through and make half of it inflate).

Please excuse the creases in the bake – it’s the inside of the swiss roll anyway so no worries!!

Also made a slight change to Mary’s recipe (lol sorry) and swapped the jam for buttercream, as I’m not overly keen on the fruit chocolate combo and prefer the texture of buttercream with chocolate so sue me.

One small thing – my rolling was not as successful as with the last one. It may have been technique or maybe I didn’t let it cool down enough? But I don’t care because this one tastes good and that’s what matters haha.

 

 

Bake 5 (Day 16): Swiss Roll

It’s safe to say I was riding on a bit of a Victoria Sponge high last weekend – so I was feeling excited about progressing to a Swiss Roll (lol at my life now) – and being the cocky novice baker that I am, I thought I was going to breeze it and look real impressive.

Oh how wrong I was.

Firstly I couldn’t progress straight to the swiss roll as it had’t occurred to me that I would need to purchase a tin – which is why this blog post is a week later!

So, as the week progressed, the new tin arrived and as the weekend rolled around and I was ready to get Swiss Rolling… (that’s awful I’ll try and avoid future bad jokes).

To start with, the mixture. Butter-less so I was’t entirely sure what to expect of the consistency, and Mary specifies that you “fold the mixture.”

I wasn’t sure what folding involved, but I don’t think it was something that came naturally to me as my mixture looked lumpy with bits of flower. I persevered and eventually got rid of the lumps (or most of them because I had got a bit bored of folding).

It’s only a quick bake, 10 mins, so in it went!

Was feeling okay about it, my oven is really hard to see in to so I couldn’t really tell how things were going. As my little alarm went off I took it out of the oven and was incredibly dismayed.

Pale, and weird and bubbly looking.

Brilliant.

So I panic and decide that maybe it’s under-baked (despite my previous conclusion that my oven runs hot err…). I give it a couple of minutes and take it out again and realise taking it out and putting it back in was a huge mistake as part of it had inflated in the corner and it still looks pale and bubbly.

ANYWAY after mum reassuring me that it’s not awful and my random inflated bit had deflated I left it to cool and prayed that things would work.

Once again I was deviating from the recipe slightly as it was jam only (and we know how I feel about jam on its own with no buttercream).

So I spread my filling(s) and successful rolled my sponge.

All looked well. I just wish I tasted so.

I mean it didn’t taste awful, but it didn’t taste great either. I think the sponge was over-baked (who’d have guessed?) and it was a bit chewy and foam-like.

Anyway as I was feeling a bit manic throughout the whole process so forgot to take pictures! I have a few from the end (it looks very sad and I am very sorry you have to look at it. I’m going to try a different type of swiss roll in the week as I am determined to nail it.

Bake 4 (Day 9): Chocolate Victoria Sponge

I am amazed I had the motivation to bake as this Sunday evening as I had a rare week where I took sociable to a new level. I think the same slump which kick started this baking challenge/blog also spurred me to make a string of back to back social plans. It was great though, I had a night out with people from work, a night out with people from the gym and caught up with friends I met whilst travelling in Australia. However, I am a home girl and normally when I have been out and about that much I spend a day being a complete slob. So I took it as a good sign that my baking momentum hadn’t completely worn off and I was actually motivated to get off my arse and commence bake number 4 – Chocolate Victoria Sponge.

I have to say now, after giving the recipe a once over, I wasn’t completely convinced (there’s me doubting Mary again lol – sorry baking gods). It’s more because I am VERY big on my chocolate, the richer and more sickly the better. So the fact the only chocolate in this sponge was 2 scoops of coco powder had me feeling dubious.

However – hats of to good old MB – I was wrong to have doubted her here. The chocolate comes through subtly and is a nice contrast to the classic buttercream icing. And as mum reminded me, this is a sponge not a brownie, so if I made it as chocolatey and dense as my instincts told me to it would have sunk!

As for the bake itself – I am now labelling myself as a Victoria Sponge pro – honestly, I thought the last two were good – but I have better grips with the consistency and decided to take the cakes out 5 minutes early as our oven runs particularly hot – and my goodness it was bloomin’ perfect.

 

I’m honestly so proud of myself. I didn’t think a cake could have this effect on me… and it’s only a sponge, I’ll probably cry if I make anything more advanced.

As much as I praise the success of this bake – it did not come without some challenges – in fact within the first 10 minutes it looked like it was going to be a disaster…

There I am, measuring my flour whilst my now beloved food processor (which I actually think is older than me) was happily mixing the butter and sugar, when a dodgy jarring noise echoes around the kitchen. It died – the food processor died. Finite. Adios my dear friend Mr. Food Processor.

I can’t abandon my cake at the first hurdle so I have to buckle up and do it by hand. By hand. (Please bear in mind that I had been to the gym this day and made to do many a push-up).

Anyway – I’ll stop moaning – I managed and like I said it was perfect. So maybe the old fashioned method is the way forward.

Also – I failed to mention that I made a tiny change to the recipe again. I made a lot more icing than suggested because it really did need more than suggested.

Tips to anyone, the icing ratios I’ve been doing:

175g butter, 350g icing sugar, 1tbsp milk.

I know it sounds a lot – but trust me, it’s worth it – you’ll see how the ratio looks in the pictures!!

(P.S. The combination of sleepiness and hunger I forgot to take a pic had a slice before I remembered haha)

 

 

Bake 3 (Day 2): Coffee Victoria Sandwich

There are now three cakes in my house and I have very little will power… potential issue here.

(I have also just signed up to a special 4 week fat loss course at the gym as I thought it was better to get ahead of things before I start expanding).

So I’m going to have a very enjoyable train journey tomorrow (where you are normally packed in like sardines), clutching my cakes to take into work. I’m hoping as I’m still quite new, that the regular bringing of cake into the office will make people like me.

Anyway.

I had a fab start to the day, leisurely morning followed by a good session at the gym, generally feeling quite pumped for the week.

Then my step fathers family arrived for Sunday lunch and my perkiness was stamped out and replaced with numbness. They are perfectly okay, just ever so draining.

So I decided to try and rejuvenate myself by charging forward into bake number 3, coffee cake.

I always assume I am a chocolate gal. But it’s not until I have coffee cake that I am reminded how superior it is, so I am thoroughly looking forward to having a slice tomorrow at my desk.

The bake went well again. After doing a Victoria Sponge yesterday this was the same but with coffee icing – so not much extra detail to add on that front!

I followed an optional tip by Mary to use actual coffee granules dissolved rather than coffee essence as I’m not a big fan of fake flavours. I’m very glad I did this as the icing is perfect…

…and I have eaten a significant amount of it on it’s own and feel sick (otherwise I would have already had a slice).

No more baking until next weekend now! I actually have a fair few social activities planned for this week and I don’t know enough people to help me consume a fourth cake.

Bake 2 (Day 1): Victoria Sponge

So I was on a bit of a roll with bake number 1, so I decided that I’d take the baking momentum and move to number 2.

Also because it’s a Saturday night and I had no plans lol. (In my defence I was out for drinks the night before, feeling groggy and craving sugar).

I have to say, this cake turned out fabulously. No over baking like with bake 1, turned out juuuusssstttt right. Although I did go a little bit rogue and add buttercream as well as jam. I know that might be criminal, only being on the second bake and going against the wise and all-knowing Mary, but I love buttercream and find jam underwhelming so it had to be done.

The recipe as a whole was easy to follow, the timings worked out well with the bake.

Not really much else to say, like the first bake, simple and sweet.

(Can feel my waist line widening already).

Bake 1 (Day 1): Madeira Cake

Okay, I am pleased to report that the first bake was not a massive failure.

To be fair madeira cake is pretty much the most simple thing you could possibly bake, so if it had been a massive disaster I’d probably have given up.

Despite the kitchen looking like I had set a flour bomb off (to my mums horror), everything went smoothly.

Mary recommends baking for 30 mins, taking out and adding a slice of lemon peel on top, and baking for another 30.

After the first 30 minutes I did as was specified and removed from the oven and placed my lemon peel on top, and put back in. However 20 minutes later I decided to take the cake out as it was starting to look a bit too brown and what was a slice of lemon peel resembled a very burnt crisp.

Little bit disappointed by the slightly over done effect from the outside, however the inside was springy and very pleasant. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as it’s quite a plain recipe but the lemon comes through really nicely.

All in all a success. Maybe my oven just runs quite hot – will bear this in mind for future bakes!